Disney Family Museum puts the focus on Walt

A few items museum-goers shouldn't miss at the Walt Disney Family Museum:

The earliest known drawing of Mickey Mouse:
Walt Disney's jotting on yellow paper already has many of the hallmarks of the classic character — he had pants from the beginning — and is surrounded by correspondence and video that chronicles the phenomenon. (Gallery 2)

The multiplane camera:
Several cameras that were used by Disney are scattered throughout the museum. The highlight is an original multiplane camera, with its two-story-tall camera crane. Arguably Disney's greatest technological achievement, the Rockwell Group built a smaller interactive camera that guests can use. (Gallery 5)

Schultheis Notebook:
This will be a treat for hard-core fans. Herman Schultheis, an effects man on “Fantasia,” compiled a detailed notebook breaking down the film from a technical view. The notebook is under glass, but an interactive table lets guests virtually page through. (Gallery 5)

Dick Van Dyke talks “Mary Poppins”:
Dick Van Dyke was hired by the museum to narrate some of his favorite behind-the-scenes memories and other facts about “Mary Poppins.” He appears as a hologram, and still looks spry at 83. (Gallery 9)

Disneyland model:
Billed as the “Disneyland model of Walt's imagination,” this 169-square-foot re-creation of Disneyland includes all the rides created during Disney's lifetime, and a few he didn't get to complete. The model has moving parts, lights up and includes narrated clips from Disney himself. (Gallery 9)

Walt Disney's final days:
Save your frozen head jokes for another day. The museum provides an extremely detailed account of Disney's actual death, with his appointment schedule from his final summer, newspaper editorials printed after his passing (Mickey Mouse with a tear was the most popular motif) and a video retrospective. (Gallery 10)

— SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

The word “Disney” has developed into a stereotype among modern movie patrons and theme park-goers. People think of princesses, formulaic family films and souvenir stands at every opportunity. Disney the company may continue to deliver a good product, but it has functioned as a marketplace goliath for decades.

Somewhere along the line, Walt Disney the man has become synonymous with the corporation. More than anything, the new Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco's Presidio seems constructed to right that alleged wrong. Disney had his high points and low, but throughout his 65 years he was a maverick. The museum is a 10-gallery, extremely detailed chronology of every step of his life, with each exhibit offering a little more proof that the man was, above everything else, an innovator.

If that sounds boring, don't worry. While the museum, which opened to the public on Thursday, seems designed for older guests — particularly those whose childhood took place before Disney's death in late 1966 — there are 21st-century touches everywhere. The photos are accompanied by framed HD television screens displaying filmed artifacts. Touch-screen monitors allow users to browse through relic documents that would normally be kept under glass. Dick Van Dyke even appears in holographic form.

A few other first impressions, after a guided tour:

Kids will enjoy several of the interactive exhibits, but there will be long stretches where most young children will get bored — a fact that the museum's creators seem to acknowledge. “From the beginning I've thought that 80 percent of the people who come here are going to be between age 45 and 65,” museum executive director Richard Benefield said. “That's the generation that remembers Walt on TV.”

If you do bring kids — or short attention-spanned adults — Gallery 9, with its model train and 169-square-foot model of “the Disneyland of Walt's imagination,” is by far the most child-friendly spot. An ideal outing for children (albeit an expensive one) might include 45 minutes in the museum, followed by tickets for a movie in the screening room.

The museum's position in San Francisco, where several of Disney's descendants live, seems less curious once you take the tour. The Walt Disney Museum is a very different experience from Disneyland; providing distance between the two makes sense. Disney also had a renegade risk-taking spirit that seems at home with Bay Area filmmakers including George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola and Pixar's John Lasseter.

Disney's core animators (the “Nine Old Men” who were the engine behind classics such as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “Pinocchio”) and other creative institutions with the company seem like de facto guides, appearing in print and on video at several turns.

For better or worse, there's a focus on minute details of Disney's life. Patrons who were hoping to see Disney's father's violin and lawn bowling club pins won't leave disappointed.

The roomy 114-seat screening room is a boon for filmgoers frustrated by the Disney vault-keepers, who have made it nearly impossible to watch classic Disney movies in movie houses. “Fantasia” plays until Oct. 19.

Even with the generally positive tone about Walt Disney's contributions to popular culture, the low points weren't ignored. One of multiple examples: There's a detailed and balanced account of the unionization attempts by his animators, and the personal turmoil that it caused Disney.

In part because of construction limitations in the Presidio building — construction crews couldn't move windows or doors — visitors will get a very densely packed museum-going experience. Even on a guided tour with only a reporter and photographer, several galleries had a claustrophobic feel. It's worth finding out what the busiest times are for the museum, and then avoiding them.

Get tickets online. Groups of guests are allowed inside in 15-minute intervals, so it's possible for the museum to sell out during the time you want to go — or at least force a long wait.

The museum seems almost gratuitously high-tech in places, and older crowds might feel overwhelmed by the volume of moving images that often surround museum-goers. But Benefield argues that the innovative details of the museum are in the spirit of Disney. “He was always pushing the boundaries, pushing the limits of the technology that was available to him, and then inventing the technology that needed to be invented,” Benefield said. “I think Walt would have been pretty pleased with it.”